Trump Cabinet pick Scott Turner scored only NFL pick 6 in lone bright moment of historically awful season

President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development played eight years in the NFL and on one of the worst teams in league history. 

Scott Turner, a seventh-round pick out of Illinois, played for a 2000 Chargers team that went 1-15. It’s recognized as one of the worst teams in NFL history, and Turner shared a locker room with infamous NFL bust Ryan Leaf. The other quarterback on that team was current Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, who went winless in five games as a starter with 10 interceptions. 

But it was one of Turner’s best individual seasons as a pro. The former defensive back had a career-high two starts and his only interception for a touchdown that year. He also blocked a punt in his team’s first meeting against the Denver Broncos in October of that year. 

Turner’s touchdown, a 75-yard pick six against the Broncos in their second meeting Nov. 19, 2000, came in the final two minutes of the first half to put San Diego up 24-7. 

Leaf had a career day passing in the only game in which he threw for more than 300 yards or three touchdowns. But Leaf threw an interception, and the Chargers lost the game 38-37. It was Leaf’s last season in San Diego, and by 2003 he was out of the league. 

Leaf later served time in jail and is known as one of the NFL’s biggest draft busts after being taken with the No. 2 overall pick in 1998 after Peyton Manning went No. 1. 

Turner played one more season in San Diego, appearing in just four games in 2001. His final NFL season came in 2003 with the Broncos.

Turner scored his first-ever touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone for the Washington Redskins against the Arizona Cardinals in December 1996. 

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Turner also worked as an intern for U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., during offseasons and after he retired in 2004. In 2006, Turner ran unsuccessfully as a Republican in California’s 50th Congressional District.

Turner joined the Texas House in 2013 as part of a large crop of Tea Party-supported lawmakers. He tried unsuccessfully to become speaker before he finished his second term in 2016. He did not seek a third term.

Trump introduced Turner in April 2019 as the head of the new White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. Trump credited Turner with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.”

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